Patriot Militiaman in the American Revolution 1775-82 by Gilbert Ed; Gilbert Catherine

Author:Gilbert, Ed; Gilbert, Catherine
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472807564
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2015-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Most militiamen functioned as mounted infantry, but some were equipped as dragoons and better equipped to fight as cavalry. This militia dragoon has a locally-made sword and helmet, but is otherwise indistinguishable from a mounted rifleman. The rifle was typically carried with the muzzle in a protective boot suspended from the saddle. (Painting by Don Troiani, www.historicalimagebank.com)

Learning that the Tories were on his trail, Brandon laid a trap. He met Andrew Love, who had escaped the Tories, and Love guided them to where the Tory party had stopped at the Stallions’ home for a meal. Brandon and his party surrounded the house. As Mrs. Stallions (Andrew Love’s sister) stepped back into her house after trying to negotiate a truce with her brother, an errant shot killed her. Young raised his rifle to shoot at a man in the distance, but William Kennedy Senior stopped him, thinking it one of their own men. Moments later the man fired, wounding William Kennedy Junior. His father, a legendary rifleman, immediately felled the Tory. The trapped Loyalists surrendered after a brief fight. Stallions and Andrew Love wept together, and Stallions was paroled to bury his wife.

On a visit to the prison at Ninety-Six Colonel John Thomas Senior’s wife Jane overheard Loyalist women discussing a plan to attack a gathering of Patriot militiamen at Cedar Spring. She rode to warn her son, Colonel John Thomas Junior. That night 60 Patriot militia set out campfires, and hid in thick underbrush nearby. One hundred and fifty Loyalists rushed the camp, only to be cut down by the waiting Patriots. The militiamen were proving all too adept at vicious warfare of ambushes and raids.

Most of the troops killed in the ambush were Tory militiamen of Major Patrick Ferguson’s command. The son of a minor Scottish nobleman, Ferguson served from the age of 17 in the Seven Years War (see Essential Histories 6: The Seven Years War, Daniel Marston, Osprey Publishing: Oxford, 2001). Ferguson was a distinguished marksman, inventor of a practical breech-loading rifle, and staunch advocate of light infantry. Shot through the elbow at Brandywine (September 11, 1777), his right arm was useless. Considered humane and gentlemanly even by his enemies, he was often at odds with the reckless and cruel Tarleton. Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel by Cornwallis, he was given responsibility for recruiting Loyalist militia. But since he would be commanding only militia he was reduced back to major.

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